The Vagrant Mind
by Millennium Spatula
Summary: The one place in Weyard least accessible to even the most telepathically experienced Jupiter Adept was the mind of Felix. A story mostly about the less life-changing escapades of GS, centered around one inscrutable Venus Adept. Felix/Sheba/Piers.
1. Chapter 1

Author's Notes:

For my first foray into the wonders of fanfic, I come bringing an odd piece that's been kicking around in my brain since I've been replaying Golden Sun: The Lost Age. While this isn't meant as a novelization, I do like writing some of the parts in the game that were sillier and generally not that important to the plot.

Other necessary information? Hrm... I don't own these characters. So, without further ado...

* * *

Chapter One: In Which the Group Tries to Leave Madra and is Continually Distracted.

Piers was not terribly fond of Madra. Even now, after that little bout of imprisonment and the subsequent Kibombo affair had all boiled over, he still could not bring himself to like the town. Maybe it was just the way most of the villagers still gave him odd glances or whispered a bit when he walked past. Yes, Piers was definitely looking forward to getting out of Madra.

Just as soon as the rest of the group finished stocking up on supplies, that is. He had made his purchases quickly and efficiently. Part of this was because he'd wanted to get back to his ship as soon as possible, as his experience with mainlanders had not been a good one so far. He feared what would happen to his boat, were he gone too long. The other part was that he had been given the stink eye for taking too long while picking out pastries at the Madran bakery.

While the Mercury Adept still rather snootily felt that mainland food had nothing on Lemurian cuisine, he was quickly developing a fondness for these blueberry scone confections. As he bit into the sugar coated biscuit, he mused.

First impressions. The idiom that they're supposed to count for something seemed to ring true for the villages he'd been to so far. Madra and Kibombo, of course, had both received angry red X's in this category. He took another bite of his scone.

The problem with the idiom though, he mused, is that it assumes that there even was any kind of first impression. And regrettably, his first impression of one member of the little group he was now traveling with had been quite non-existent.

He vaguely recalled that a group had visited the dimly-lit prison after his episode with a particularly obnoxious Madran. The short blond girl, he remembered because she'd used some kind of Psynergy. It was hard to mistake that soft glow of energy, as well as the feeling of someone poking around in his thoughts as she read his mind. If he thought about it, he could also remember a second girl there, and maybe an old man.

Fast forward to second meeting. Something in the back of his Lemurian brain triggered a hazy recollection of said three figures when they approached him atop a cliff near the Kibombo Village. However, something was out of place. He could not for the life of him remember ever seeing this particular Venus Adept before.

Maybe he'd been there in the prison, all along, lurking in the shadows somewhere? The browns and greens of his clothes did after all seem well suited for lurking in dark alleyways and such. Piers decided that if he had actually met Felix with all his dark clothes and trademark brooding frown in a dark alley, his first impression would have been a negative one. In fact, he probably would have yelped and made off in the other direction or drawn his sword, as he would not have wanted to add Being Mugged to his list of Unpleasant Things That Had Happened Since Leaving Lemuria.

That however, had not happened, although their second first meeting had involved a yelp and his nearly falling off a cliff. Had Piers's gaze not been intently fixed upon the Kibombo ritual involving what essentially was his ship's engine, he might have noticed the commotion behind him.

"Hey, that's Piers over there!" Jenna had hissed at Felix, who had merely looked in the directly she'd pointed and nodded.

"Perhaps we should get his attention?" Kraden had suggested.

Felix had nodded again, and for a few moments, no one did anything. Then Jenna had poked Felix in the arm and whispered, "Well, get over there! Go say hello!"

And when he had only looked blankly at her, she had stepped behind him and shoved him forward until he was standing awkwardly not two feet behind the preoccupied Lemurian.

He had turned and given his sister a rather pained expression before cautiously reaching up with his gloved hand and poking the Lemurian in the shoulder.

Piers, of course, had not been expecting this, and had certainly not been expecting to turn around and see the deeply frowning face of the Venus Adept. And given that it was dusk, the light of the torches had cast an eerie shadow on Felix's face, so that Piers reacted how any sensible person would have reacted. He yelped and stepped back, forgetting that he was on the edge of a cliff. Feeling himself begin to tip backwards, he had in desperation grabbed the arm of the very person whose face had nearly sent him reeling off a cliff to begin with.

He'd noticed a disturbing trend, that all of his Lemurian pride and grace had seemed to evaporate the moment he'd hit the mainland.

The two had then stared at each other for a moment before Jenna, sensing the conversational incompetence of her brother, had stepped in, and reintroductions were made.

* * *

Fast forward again to the present. Felix sat under a tree in Madra, attempting to avoid all human life, for fear that some sentient being might actually try to converse with him. He preferred to regard it not as avoidance, but quiet introspection, a pastime that seemed to be lost on the present generation. Felix was thinking back over the past few days, particularly over the addition of one Lemurian to their little group.

Felix had remembered Piers much better than Piers had remembered Felix. After all, it would have been impossible to ignore the chatter in the town about the strange man the villagers had assumed to be Champa and promptly locked away. In this way, the group had decided to scope out the jail, only to find themselves thoroughly ignored by the Mercury Adept, who seemed perfectly happy with pacing about and talking to himself instead of them.

And being that the jail had held only this singular occupant with hair that even in the bad light was easily identifiable as neon blue and more outlandish clothes than any of them had ever seen, the man was difficult for even Felix to manage to completely disregard and go about his thoughtful introspection. As such, Felix remembered Piers.

Felix also remembered watching a pillar of ice shoot up from a puddle on the ground and catch a teenage Madran in the stomach. Felix had not felt any particular pity for the boy at the time. After all, he had been loud, and loud people interrupted his thoughts, and were therefore punishable by ice pillar to the gut.

There had been another incident involving Piers, Jenna, himself, and Psynergy, he recalled as he looked at his singed cloak. This had been just yesterday, after the Black Orb had been retrieved from Kibombo. The group had been on their way back and had stopped to search for some edible creature which they could feast upon. When Jenna had made to light up the bonfire with a Flare, Felix had not quite removed himself far enough from the flames and found himself quite on fire. Seeing the fire creeping along Felix's cloak, Piers had quickly cast Douse, which put out the fire but also left him soaked.

And with that, the wheels in his brain began to turn, and a question most curious formed in his mind-

* * *

"Does he always sit there and brood like that?" Piers asked, thoroughly startling Sheba. Even though past experience had told him that, yes, Felix had made quite the hobby of communing with the grass, the query seemed as good as any with which to get Sheba's attention.

The Jupiter Adept had been on her way to the place where the group agreed to meet up after they had finished stocking up on supplies. After all, if they were going to set sail for an indefinite length of time, it might be helpful to actually have things like food. Of course, Sheba had reminded herself, that was all assuming that what the Lemurian said was correct, and that they indeed would be able to sail the ship with the black orb they had gone to so much trouble to get back. She had been thinking about these things when she'd happened to notice a certain Venus Adept brooding against a tree.

Being that Sheba was up on a bit of a cliff, whereas Felix was down below and did not seem particularly alert at the moment, a fierce debate began to rage in her mind. On one hand, fate had handed her the perfect opportunity for a quick Mind Read. On the other, what if he noticed her? She knew all Adepts could tell when Psynergy was released, but was fairly certain that it was more difficult to specify what kind had been used. Hence, she had been trying to make up her mind up until the moment one Mercury Adept had popped up, seemingly out of nowhere.

The Lemurian also peered over the cliff at the sullen Felix. "Not a very talkative one, is he? Thinking about seeing what's on his mind at the moment?"

Sheba jumped just a little at his accurate assessment of the situation. She flushed. "Oh! Well- er... yes," she said.

Piers smiled. "I say you do it. Now I'm curious too." He leaned against the side of the building while Sheba cast her Psynergy. She kept it up for several moments, her eyebrows raising steadily higher as she did so, until Piers was quite sure that they would pop right off her head and float away.

"FEEEELIX! Did you fall asleep over here?" Jenna had run up to Felix and stood over him, poking him on the head. "Well, I'm all ready, and you must be too if you're just sitting here. This isn't the spot we said to meet, what if you'd fallen asleep and we'd left without you?" She punctuated her points by continuing to poke Felix on the head.

Eventually he appeared to have had enough poking as he pushed her hand away and got up with a "Hn" as his only response. Then Felix glanced around. "I felt Psynergy," he said.

Jenna raised an eyebrow. "Huh? Wasn't me. Now, can we get a move on? I want to get another look at this ship that guy's got, unless someone else's made off with it already."

Indeed, the source of the Psynergy had long since let out a quick "Eep!" and run off as soon as Jenna arrived. Piers had chuckled and strode after her.

Sheba's hurry had turned out to be wasted effort as by the time Jenna dragged Felix to the meeting place, she had returned her face to its default calm expression. Piers nodded at the two new arrivals and after a few minutes passed, inquired, "Where is erm... Kraden?"

Jenna sighed. "Who knows. Aw, I hope that old geezer didn't fall in a hole or something."

Felix made a face but said nothing. Around ten minutes later though, it looked like Jenna's comment hadn't been completely unwarranted. There came Kraden, covered in dirt and dust, but looking more chipper than ever. As soon as he made his way over to the group, he began to talk and gesture excitedly.

"Oh ho ho, you won't believe what I found! Do you remember that cave where we found the Tremor Bit? Well, I believe that there's a place where Sheba's Reveal Psynergy might come in handy..." Kraden continued on to explain in more detail than the group really needed about the catacombs under the town.

Jenna sighed and whispered to Sheba, "See? Exactly what I told you. And he's been crawling around in the caves all this time."

"Well, what do you say? Shall we explore the catacombs for a bit then?" Kraden appeared more excited at the prospect of crawling around in a dark pit than the rest of them did. Piers voiced a slight concern. "Well, I really was hoping we would be able to get back to my ship today, but if you feel there may be something there of some use..." he trailed off.

Kraden shook his head. "Oh we won't be spending too much time, trust me. After all, we have much to do."

* * *

Piers could hear Kraden's words echoing in his mind when several hours later, they were still down in the catacombs, of which Kraden was strangely insistent that they explore every inch in sight. In the end, the group's excursion yielded a summoning tablet, a fact which Piers used to try to keep himself from encasing the scholar in a block of ice and not letting him thaw until they were safely aboard his ship. By the time they emerged from the ruins, all members were sweaty and tired. However, it was only a little into the afternoon, a fact which consoled the Lemurian slightly.

They sat down in the shade under a building. A chicken was clucking and scratching at the ground a few feet away.

Jenna watched the chicken, which eyed her back, warily. "I need food. All I can think about when I see that chicken over there is shish-kabobs. And I really don't want to get run out of Madra for eating someone's chicken."

Sheba nodded. "I'm getting pretty hungry too."

And with that, the two girls decided to go off in search of sustenance, leaving Felix, who was not hungry yet, Piers, and Kraden, the latter two whose minds were occupied by subject matter other than food.

Were Sheba there to Mind Read the remaining three, she would have learned the following:

Kraden's mind was occupied by the kinds of academic musings interesting to him, but not particularly relevant to anyone else at that exact time.

Piers was thinking about the same thing he had been for the past several hours. Were one to topically organize his stream-of-consciousness from that day, it likely would have been something like this: "Ship. Ship. Monster. Ship. Ship. Ship. Ship. Stone tablet. Ship. Monster. Ship. Ship. Ship."

As for Felix, he was debating the same problem that had claimed his mental faculties earlier that day, that which had so confused Sheba upon reading his mind- Sheba who came running back to the seated group, followed closely behind by Jenna, who was waving her arms excitedly.

"Guys, GUYS, you will not _believe_ what I saw. So there was this old lady walking a Mars Djinni. On a leash!"

Kraden smiled. "My my, what an odd choice of pet."

Jenna grinned impishly, holding up her pointer finger for emphasis. "And that is exactly why it would be so much better off with us!"

Despite being rather cranky that their present location was not a certain ship, Piers tried to be the voice of reason. "But you can't just take someone's Djinni, even if we would have better use for it."

Jenna rubbed her hands together. "That's where it gets good. Tell 'im, Sheba!"

Sheba cleared her throat. "Well, I Mind Read the old lady, and she was thinking about how much her husband loves a special kind of mushroom that grows in the Cliffs..."

Jenna picked up where she left off. "And maybe if we get them one, we can bag ourselves a Djinni!"

At this point, Piers looked about ready to cry. As Kraden and the two girls set off for the Gondowan Cliffs, he leaned against the building and muttered, "I shall never get back to Lemuria." It was then that he could have sworn that he heard a low chuckle as Felix walked past. Piers raised an eyebrow. Could that have been... some indication that Felix did indeed possess a sense of humor, albeit one tinged with schadenfreude? Piers raised an eyebrow and continued on after him.

* * *

Several hours later found the group's Mushroom Hunt well underway.

"Jenna... do you even know what this mushroom is supposed to look like? What if we bring back the wrong kind?" Sheba asked.

Jenna rubbed her chin and nodded sagely. "Yeah, I don't really think they'd be too happy if we brought them something poisonous. Maybe we should have a taste tester!" She grinned and turned to jab Felix in the stomach.

It was at about this moment that Piers, whose mind had been occupied with things other than mushroom hunting, wandered over to a large tree and leaned against it. There, he heard quite a curious sound. It was like a faint snoring coming from above him. He looked in the branches of the tree. No, it didn't seem like anything was there. He backed up further so that he was standing against the cliff. The sound was louder there, a nasal snore, punctuated by high pitched snorting noises. _What's making that godawful noise?_ Piers thought crankily. He looked up.

Hanging over the cliff above him was a small red tail. One tiny leg also flopped over the cliff as the thing turned over with a grunt. A Mars Djinni. A rather slovenly Mars Djinni, his mind added.

He slunk away quietly, over to where Jenna was on her hands and knees, combing through the grass for mushrooms.

"Jenna?"

The Mars Adept turned and looked over her shoulder. "What? You find a mushroom?"

Piers cleared his throat. "No, but I believe I found another Djinni for you. It appears to be sleeping over on that ridge," he said.

Jenna went from crawling to standing in one quick motion, an acrobatic feat that Piers had never expected to see. "WHAT, DJINNI WHERE?" she shouted excitedly.

Piers pointed over to the cliff by the tree and Jenna clasped her hands together, laughed rather maniacally, and ran off. _At least she's enthusiastic,_ he thought. _Unlike some people._

Which reminded him. He never had found out from Sheba exactly what Felix had been thinking about earlier. And given how oddly she had reacted to whatever it was, he was curious. So, as Jenna was quickly climbing up the tree to reach the higher level of the cliff, Piers was wandering over to Sheba, who'd been searching for mushrooms a few feet away. What he didn't notice though, was how the Djinni he had set Jenna to find apparently did not take well to rude awakenings at the hands of Mars Adepts. The creature had skittered away, leaving Jenna to chase after it on the ridge above them.

"Find anything?" he asked. She shook her head with a look that asked, And why aren't you helping?

"SO, out of curiosity, I have a question. Nothing really important, just a matter of mere pointless interest on my part..." he trailed off.

Sheba stared at him as though he had suddenly sprouted large vines from his ears.

He cleared his throat. "Er, so what exactly was our broody Venus Adept thinking about earlier?"

She squinted a bit as she remembered. "Ah, that. It wasn't anything important, really. I mean, I guess some people are just inclined to think about things like this," she said.

Piers's mind screamed at him in curiosity. "But what exactly was it?" he inquired.

"DJINNI, HO!" Jenna shouted as a blazing cloud of red tore down the cliff, leaving Piers and Sheba barely enough time to leap out of the way. Jenna soon slid down one level of the cliff, ran between the pair of Adepts, and chased after the creature.

Now, if one may recall, the group had spent a great deal of time preparing for the rigors of a long voyage at sea; in other words, Jenna made off with some of the funds and bought as much junk food as she could carry. And carry their food they did, as there really wasn't anywhere else to put it. And they had been counting on, well, actually getting to the ship in the near future. Carrying around all these supplies during the little excursion into the catacombs had disinclined the group to willingly haul them through the mountains. As such, a large pile of bags sat on the lower level of the cliff, with Kraden to watch over them while the rest of the group looked for mushrooms above. Kraden, whose mind was again occupied by the wonders of alchemy, rendering him oblivious to what was going on above his head.

Just when Jenna thought she had the beast cornered, it skittered away through her legs, leaving her to turn and glare at it. The Djinni slid down one more level of cliff, landing, much to the surprise of both parties, on the head of Kraden.

He yelped and the Djinni bounced down into his lap. "Ah! If it isn't a Mars- OUCH!" The Djinni had set his hand on fire, bounced away, and looked at him while making angry noises. Jenna tried to slide down the cliff as the Djinni had done, lost her balance and landed in a heap in the pile of supplies. Spying her, the creature went on the offensive and blasted a stream of flames at her. She ducked down, so that the fire only set all the supplies on fire and not her.

"Augh! Not my snacks!" she cried and grabbed the bag full of junk food. She tried to beat the flames off it, noticed the Djinni coming after her and yelped. It was then that an idea struck her right before the Djinni was about to. She tore open the bag, caught the creature inside and closed it.

"Ha!" she exclaimed, not noticing how close she had come to the edge of the cliff. She noticed neither this fact, nor that the Djinni was not willing to give up the fight just yet. It rammed the side of the bag, causing her to wheel back. She felt her foot slide off the edge of the cliff as she fell backwards into the water below.

* * *

End Notes:

Oh, a cliffhanger, you'll hate me. And what on earth was Felix thinking about earlier? At least it's a _literal_ cliffhanger! What was that? Spatula, you're an idiot? Alright, point taken.

So, being that this is my first attempt even at creative prose in a long while, constructive reviews are _loved_. I think I'll try to keep chapters around 3,000 words, just to set a completely arbitrary goal for myself. Until next time!


	2. Chapter 2

Author's Notes:

Hello again, my readers! Being that it's summer and I'm still in a Golden Sun nostalgia craze, I've been moving along decently. I think I like using the line breaks between major scenes. That way it doesn't come across so much as WALL OF TEXT. Anyway, onto the chapter.

* * *

Chapter 2: In Which a Djinni is Remorseful and Piers Kicks Jellyfish.

If you'll recall, at the end of our last installment, Jenna was in the process of falling off a cliff after a fierce (and frankly, kind of stupid) battle with a Mars Djinni. Well, you may wonder, where in Weyard was Felix during all of this?

About ten seconds after Jenna had offered his taste-testing services for any strange mushrooms the group found, he had slunk away. He figured that if his sister wanted that Djinni so badly, she could find the damned things herself. After an hour of being out in the sun in his multiple layers of dark clothing, he felt downright wilted. It had never, of course, actually occurred to him to remove one or more of said layers.

He had found it shady and cool at the bottom of the cliffs near the water. There was a small island reachable by a few hops over the flat rocks that jutted out of the water. He settled down and continued with his daily regimen of musing.

It was about ten minutes later that he heard a scream followed a few seconds later by a splash. _Jenna_, he thought.

He turned and looked over his shoulder to ascertain whether or not the situation called for his brotherly concern. Felix didn't mind being near water, but it had already been established in Vale that he didn't do well _in_ it. He knew that if he dove in to save Jenna, he would most likely end up on the bottom of the river, and they'd both have to be fished out by the resident Mercury Adept.

Jenna, however, seemed to be in no danger of sinking as he would have. Quite the contrary, as from where Felix sat, it looked like she was being propelled around by her knapsack. He raised his eyebrows. Jenna actually looked like she was enjoying herself, although he still for the life of him could not figure out how she was whizzing around like that. He supposed it did sort of look like fun, though he figured if he tried, he'd still sink.

The next moment gave him an opportunity to observe more easily as the bag towed Jenna directly toward him. At this point, he noticed several things. The first was that the bag was actually moving fairly fast. This surprised him, as Jenna wasn't exactly the world's lightest cargo-load to be towing around. The second thing he noticed was that Jenna was spouting off insults at the bag.

"Stupid Djinni- oh hiii Felix!" Jenna shouted as she came closer.

_Djinni?_ Felix thought. _Where was the Djinni?_ At that moment, there was a sound of tearing fabric as the Djinni finally ripped through the knapsack and charged straight into his gut.

_Oh_, Felix thought as the force of the creature's flaming tackle knocked him backwards into the water.

On the cliff above the siblings, Sheba and Piers had been watching the debacle unfold in the water below. Piers was unsure whether to be concerned or start laughing, but the moment Felix flew back into the water, Sheba grabbed his arm with a worried look on her face. "Felix can't swim!" she said.

Jenna climbed up onto the little island and ran over to the other side. She scanned the water, and seeing no Felix, she turned back to the cliff and shouted, "Piers! Get down here!"

Piers slid down the face of the rock and vaulted over to the island. Concentrating his Psynergy, he willed the water to bring up the sinking Venus Adept. He couldn't see anything in the murky depths, but he could tell his energy was focused on something large and heavy. He strained as what he definitely hoped was Felix refused to come up out of the water. Jenna stood by, watching the water for any signs of her brother.

"Your brother's no pixie, but I didn't think he was actually _made_ of rock," Piers growled. He strained again, and Felix popped out of the water like a brown and rather lumpy dolphin. Gasping and coughing, he grabbed hold of the island. Piers panted from the exertion and extended a hand.

"Here- pffffft," Piers snorted as he realized what had held Felix under the water for so long. The boy was completely covered in long, slimy pieces of seaweed. The vegetation, a sickly shade of green, clung to him with such ferocity that he gave the impression of a botched attempt at mummification.

Felix glared at Piers and refused the hand. He managed to pull himself out of the water and took a step forward, not noticing the slippery seaweed that snaked around his boots. His feet shot backwards as he fell forwards right onto Piers. Thankfully, the other man had better balance and grabbed Felix around the waist to steady him.

Piers bit his lip as he tried not to laugh. Picking a long piece of seaweed off Felix's head, he said, "Green. It suits you well."

At that moment, Kraden's voice called from atop the cliff, "Piers! The supplies are on fire!"

* * *

That evening, the group was again in Madra. Half their supplies had been flambéed and Jenna's precious bag of snacks was completely ruined. Jenna hadn't seen the Djinni since it had knocked Felix into the drink, and they'd never managed to find any mushrooms. All in all, to say that the day hadn't gone well would be an understatement. Similarly, to say that Felix was unhappy at the moment would also be an understatement.

Felix had been sitting in the corner of the inn, picking seaweed out of his hair for the last hour. Jenna walked up to him, rolled her eyes and said, "Good grief, just go take a bath! You smell like seaweed." For the look she got in return, she may as well have told him to go jump off the edge of the world.

"No... water," he said menacingly.

She waved her hands. "Fine, fine, but you're going to get sick of smelling like that eventually." And with that, she left the inn, presumably in search of replacement snacks.

While Piers was annoyed that they hadn't gotten to his ship that day, the sight of a glaring, seaweed-covered Felix had been memorable enough to make up for it, at least partially.

After a while, Felix got up and hobbled off to some unnamed destination. Sheba looked up over the book she'd been reading to watch him go. Piers let loose a barrage of laughter that he felt like he'd been holding in for a long time.

Sheba looked at him from across the room. "That's not very nice," she said, but then smiled.

Piers wheezed a bit and held his stomach. "Oh... wait. Before Felix comes back, I have to ask. What in Weyard was he thinking about earlier?" he inquired.

Sheba walked over to Piers's side of the room. "Well, I guess I read him at an odd time because I don't have any idea how he got onto this, but..." she trailed off.

Piers looked at her expectantly.

"Douse," she said simply.

Piers frowned and raised a quizzical eyebrow. "As in the Psynergy?_ My_ Psynergy?"

Sheba shrugged. "Well, any Mercury Adept's Psynergy, but yes. He was trying to figure out whether the water one summons from a Douse would be freshwater or saltwater."

Piers rested his hand on his chin. "Odd... even I've never thought about it."

Sheba nodded and raised her pointer finger. "Also, he was curious if you could drink the water."

Piers folded his arms. "Again, something I've never tried." "I guess I've always thought these kinds of Psynergy just gather existing particles from the air... so if you're by the ocean it'd be saltwater, or vice versa."

Sheba nodded. "Right, but what if you're in a desert?"

Piers frowned again. "I don't know... I guess there must be water _somewhere_. Maybe you'd suck it out of a cactus."

"He thought of that too."

Piers laughed again. "Really. What odd taste in things to think about. Is everything he thinks about that...random?"

Sheba flushed. "I-I don't know! I've only read his mind a couple times." Her voice shrank as she said the words, "a couple times."

Piers grinned. "Now now, I wouldn't blame you. With someone as taciturn as he for company, anyone would get curious."

It was then that Felix returned to the room, looking rather pleased with himself. Most of the seaweed was gone from his hair. Piers and Sheba both turned and observed at him for a moment, as if to verify that he was indeed as taciturn as Piers had just stated. Felix glanced from side to side, apparently not believing himself to be interesting enough to stare at. Sheba, realizing she was gaping, turned back to her book, her face slightly pinker than it had been a moment ago. Piers simply smirked and sat back down.

_Tap tap tap._

Felix sat back down near the window and for a few moments, the three were lost in their separate thoughts.

_Tap tap tap._

Sheba looked around the room. "Did either of you just hear that?"

Piers looked at her. "Is someone at the window?" he asked, making a tapping gesture with his forefinger. Felix slowly looked up, as the window in question was directly to his left. The tapping had stopped, but there was an odd hissing noise. Felix stared curiously as bottommost pane of the window glowed bright red and then white. He blinked. It looked as though a hole was being melted into the-

_FOOM!_ A beam of flame shot through the window. A moment later, the acrid smell of burning hair filled the room as Felix put out his smoldering bangs. Both Sheba and Piers stared wide-eyed as a familiar red creature climbed in through the window, holding an oddly shaped item.

The door opened with a creak as Jenna bounced into the room, only to halt abruptly and stare.

She gasped. "YOU!" Her hands became claws as she lunged upon the Djinni. It side-stepped her pounce and she found herself looking directly into the eyes of the half-foot menace.

It pushed a small...thing at her.

"Huh?" she said and sat up. She picked up the object and held it up to the light. It was a... mushroom?

Jenna looked at the Djinni, then back at the mushroom. "Is this what we spent all afternoon looking for?"

Piers stepped carefully over the Djinni and leaned over beside her. He raised his eyebrows.

"If I'm not mistaken, that's a fairly rare kind of mushroom," he said.

Jenna scowled. "Well, I wouldn't put it past that thing," she said and pointed at the Djinni, "to bring us something poisonous on purpose."

The Djinni looked rather affronted at her remark and scuffled around on the floor. If it had arms, it surely would have been crossing them.

Piers shrugged. "I think that was meant as a gesture of contrition, Jenna."

"Huh?"

"He means it's sorry," Sheba piped up.

"Oh." She looked back at the Djinni, pouted, and then said, "Fine, then I'm sorry for chasing you all over. But you still ruined my snack bag. What's your name anyway?"

The Djinni crept cautiously back over to where she sat. "Kin-dle!" it squeaked.

Sheba smiled. "How appropriate."

Jenna nodded. "Alright, ya little booger. You can come with. Just don't set any more of our stuff on fire." Kindle nodded, and Jenna's other Djinn, who had been watching the display, scuttled out to properly welcome the newcomer.

* * *

"Two Djinni in two days, things are looking good!" Jenna said as she bounced down the road. Kindle was riding atop her ponytail, and Char, the former pet of the old Madran woman, sat on her shoulder.

Sheba smiled. "That old lady sure was happy to get the mushroom."

"Yuuuh-huh," Jenna replied. She was feeling rather proud of herself at that moment. A slight hint of guilt had struck her when she'd realized that it was in part her fault that the group had to replace half their supplies. This meant, of course, that Felix would be even more of a tightwad with the group's funds, putting a kink in her snacking habits.

Her resourcefulness had immediately kicked in, however, and she had put on a remarkable performance for the shopkeepers about the "horrible fire that cost them so much time and money, and when they were on such an _important quest_ and had done _so much_ to help Madra." In short, her wheedling had gotten replacements for bargain price.

Piers was also fairly content at that moment. The morning had passed without any particularly horrible surprises. But there remained a small voice in the back of his head that had been troubling him with thoughts such as, _Wouldn't it be ironic is we came all this way and the ship wasn't there?_

The group passed a turn on the road, and there was the beach- and his ship. It appeared to be in one piece; there were no obvious parts falling off or holes visible. _We'll find out if there are any other holes once we start sailing_, quipped the voice again. Piers had noticed a growing morbidity in his thoughts as of late.

He shook his head as if to clear it. Sailing. Boat. Yes. As they approached the boat, he breathed a sigh of relief. As far as he could tell, nothing seemed wrong with the outside. _A feat of Lemurian craftsmanship_, he thought rather haughtily.

"Piers, what's that on the side of the ship?" Sheba asked, interrupting his brief bout of national pride.

He turned and looked. "I don't see anything. Where are you looking, Sheba?" She pointed at a bluish mass stuck to the side of the ship. Piers squinted. It was slimy and lumpy and... _writhing_. Piers felt the blueberry scones he'd downed for breakfast begin to swim in his stomach.

"WARGH!" the normally composed Lemurian cried. "Why are there _jellyfish_ all over _my ship_?"

They hadn't seen them on the side of the ship in the sun, but in the shade, oodles of the creatures clung to the side of the ship.

Jenna stared up at the wall of marine life. "Eeew, look at them all. It's like they're trying to eat the ship or something." She turned to Sheba, puckered her lips, and made a rather impressive imitation of the squelching sounds emanating from the creatures.

Sheba laughed and turned to Piers. "Do you think any got inside?"

Piers grimaced, turned, and ran as quickly as he could without completely sacrificing his dignity.

A half hour later, the group was still on cleanup duty. When Jenna expressed a slight aversion to spending the afternoon clearing out jellyfish ("It's his stupid ship, he can clean it himself!"), Piers had given her a look suggesting that if she didn't, she would be tossed overboard with the jellies.

"Why- are there so many- _jellyfish?!_" Piers cut down three more of the creatures. The group had split up, as the beasts were not particularly difficult to dispatch. He sighed deeply and made to lean on the wall to rest only to encounter- you guessed it- yet another jellyfish. "Augh!" he yelled as his arm sunk into the watery creature. It slithered out from under him, crawled down the side of the wall, and tried to slink down the hallway. Frustrated, Piers kicked at the unfortunate creature, only to slip in the water and crash to the floor.

"Outside's clean," came a flat, male voice from behind him.

Piers rose from the floor in such a manner that tried to disguise the fact that he had ended up there by kicking at a jellyfish. Fighting the urge to rub his bruised tailbone, he turned around and nodded, clasping his hands. "Yes, thank you, Felix."

The Venus Adept stood there for a moment before turning and going back the way he came. Piers knew that in his frustration, he wasn't exactly thinking clearly. However, as Felix turned to leave, Piers could have sworn that he saw the barest hint of a smile.

* * *

End Notes:

Thanks for reading! Oddly enough, I actually have most of the fifth chapter written right now. As, you know, I don't exactly think in a linear fashion and started writing the scenes as they popped into my brain.

Again, any reviews of the writing itself would be greatly appreciated. But hey. If you just want to tell me what you thought, I'd love that too.


	3. Chapter 3

Author's Notes:

Apologies for taking longer to get this chapter up. My original characters have been yelling at me to draw them, so that had to be taken care of, as well as some Real Life this-and-that which took precedence over fic. That said, onto the chapter!

* * *

Chapter Three: In Which the Group Takes a Wrong Turn and Felix Takes Up Gardening.

"I thought we were going to Yallam! How the heck did we end up in a _swamp_?" Jenna complained. "Felix, is your map upside down again?"

Felix turned to shoot Jenna one of his typical wordless glowers, only to observe that he was looking her right in the eye instead of staring down at her. With a grunt, he stepped forward, pulling himself out of the muck he had sunk into.

"How did we manage to walk this far without actually noticing we were in a swamp?" queried Sheba. She was standing on a rather sickly colored stump to avoid sinking into the mud.

"Perhaps we made a wrong turn," Kraden suggested.

Jenna looked around. "I dunno... are you sure we're even in Osenia?"

Turn back the clock... say two weeks, give or take a couple days. Piers had suggested that they begin their expedition by sailing around the coast of Osenia. The fear that the jellyfish had somehow eaten a hole into the bottom of his precious ship still plagued him, despite his thorough examination of the vessel. Ergo, he was not inclined to stray too far from the shore until he was positive they would not suddenly find themselves treading water. There was, of course, another reason for his examination of the coast, but he'd not felt it was his place to divulge that to the others yet. This reason had, however, mandated that he recruit another to steer his precious ship in the mean time.

Unfortunately, none of the other applicants for the job seemed particularly promising. It was not a matter of physical strength so much as Psynergy, and for that reason, the Jupiter Adept first came to mind. Unfortunately, what Sheba boasted in measure of Psynergy, she lacked in measure of verticality. The Jupiter Adept could barely see over the helm.

Piers, still looking slightly crazed after the jellyfish incident, had guided the group up to the deck and explained how to steer the ship. Jenna, trying and failing to contain her chortles, had pushed Sheba forward and told her to give it a whirl. Sheba had merely raised an eyebrow at her friend and taken the wheel.

At that point, it had been apparent to Piers that 1. Felix's sister was evil, but had rather good spatial skills, and 2. Sheba was quite short. This eliminated two of the candidates for steering duties.

And then there was Felix. When Piers had cast a hopeful eye in Kraden's direction, the old man had apparently thought Piers wanted his help in volunteering Felix for the job. Now, Piers did not by any means want to overtax the scholar, but he figured that if the old man had been walking along with the rest of the group for this long, steering the ship might have been in the realm of possibility. Kraden had merely laughed an, "Ohoho!" and with a wrinkled hand, shoved the Venus Adept forward. Putting Piers in a position he had very much wanted to avoid.

Felix, however, turned out not to be as bad as Piers had feared. In other words, he did not manage to sink the ship within the first hour. He did, however, have several close calls:

Sometimes, Piers would be at the back of the ship, studying the shore. He would gradually make his way back to the front of the ship, occasionally going up to the crow's nest to get a better view. Every so often, he would glance at Felix to check that he wasn't headed straight into a cliff. And every so often, Felix would happen to catch his glance, and within a few moments, the ship would just graze a rock, or turn a bit too far in one direction. Piers swore that he was doing it on purpose. On one occasion when they had been nearing a mass of large, jagged rocks, Felix had taken his hands off the wheel, stretched for a half minute, and waved before replacing them, much to the horror of Piers.

Shortly after that, Piers procured a crate on which Sheba could stand while Felix took a "break" from steering.

Kraden appeared beside him, examining a large map that flapped awkwardly in the wind. "If I am correct, it appears that we are nearing Yallam," he said.

Piers frowned. "By the looks of it, we won't be able to get there from this side with all those rocks," he said. "Is there anything there that might be worth going out of the way?"

Kraden folded the map and scratched his chin. "I believe I've heard something about a sailor who was said to have found a way to Lemuria. And yes, I believe he was said to reside in Yallam."

Piers nodded. "Alright. Shall we continue on down the coast then, Sheba?" he asked. The Jupiter Adept nodded. And it was that brief exchange that set the stage for the debacle that followed.

* * *

Felix could not help but notice the ominous presence behind him. Piers seemed to become progressively moodier as the group wandered through the swamp. This confused Felix. As far as he saw it, Piers was in his element here, even if the manifestation of it was gray, murky, and smelled funny. After a while, Felix concluded that the squelching noises they made as they slogged through the muck were subconsciously reminding the Lemurian of the sounds emitted by the jellyfish that had defiled his ship and therefore making him cranky.

It had taken the little group a decent chunk of time to sail down the coast of Osenia to a point where they could actually land. Piers seemed considerably less picky about the landing locations when Sheba was at the helm, Felix observed.

And then they had somehow ended up in a swamp. He still was not exactly sure how, but he surmised that it had somehow involved Jenna, despite any of her claims to the contrary. Jenna, who despite her earlier grouses, now seemed to be enjoying herself. Apparently having gotten over the smell of the muck, she was stomping through it with rather more gusto than was really necessary. Sheba was managing well enough, being light on her feet, and Kraden didn't seem too bothered either. It was only the Lemurian who was making sour faces now.

"Woah," said Jenna, stopping abruptly. She held her nose, though grinning. "Look at _that. WHEW_."

She was referring to point where the slightly more solid ground suddenly fell away into a veritable pit of yuck. The viscous goo was of dubious content and possibly infinite depth. Jenna surveyed it with a mix of horror and reverence. Felix frowned vaguely at his sister, who had run over to the edge of the slop and was now poking it with a stick. Leave it to Jenna to derive amusement from a slimy pit of death.

Felix cast a lazy glance over at the Mercury Adept, who looked rather green at the moment. Piers frowned and placed his hands on his hips. "Well, this looks like a dead end. Is there really any reason for us to go further on?"

Sheba raised an eyebrow at him. "You want to walk all the way back?"

Kraden nodded. "Look over there. It seems like we're near a mountain. If there's a way through it, then we should be able to get back our original path to Yallam."

Piers looked unconvinced. "And if there's not? How would we even get across this... _goo_ anyway?" he inquired with hand motions to emphasize the word "goo."

"Wheeee! Feee-lix, commere! This is fun!" came Jenna's voice. She was apparently balanced atop a stream of bubbles coming up through the sludge.

Felix raised his eyebrows. Inwardly, he was still horrified at the prospect of nearing the mess, let alone crossing it, bubbles or no. However, he really couldn't deny that there was something inherently amusing about the Lemurian when he was annoyed. So, while Felix was fearing imminent death-by-swamp, he allowed for a bit of gallows humor.

Felix, his face blank as usual, nodded as he walked past Piers. "Your element, isn't it?" he asked without an audible trace of sarcasm and continued on.

Kraden stepped onto the first column of air. "Let's go," he said.

And go they did, as Jenna was already across. Sheba, who was close behind, turned back and waved at Felix on the shore. He blinked and took it as a "Get over here already!"

Much to Felix's surprise, his trip across the bubbles neared its end quickly enough. So occupied was his mind with not drowning that despite his quip, it had not properly occurred to him that antagonizing a Mercury Adept while near liquid was something akin to poking the proverbial dragon in the eye.

(Although, had this analogy come to Felix's mind, he might have discovered intriguing similarities between Piers and the dragon, assuming said proverbial beast was of the water element. After all, he swore he had seen steam issue from Piers's ears during the jellyfish incident in much the same way a water dragon might exude the gas. But alas, this particular thought process did not come to mind.)

Felix issued something near a sigh of relief as he balanced gingerly atop the last column of bubbles before more solid ground. He extended one booted foot to step back into the goo only to see a slight blue glow as the sludge parted beneath him and he sank down up to his neck.

A _schlorp_ behind him announced the presence of another. "Odd, the bubbles are here now," said Piers quite innocently and continued on.

* * *

The interior of the mountain turned out to be dark and dank, though it mostly lacked the unique texture and aroma of the outside. After an hour or so, the group stopped for a rest.

"Do you really think there's a way through this cave?" Sheba asked, surveying the area.

Jenna folded her arms and nodded. "Well, at least we can't really get lost, 'cause Felix has left a nice trail for us, eh?"

Felix cast an evil eye in Jenna's direction.

She cackled. "Sorry Felix, but now even your stink-eyes smell like swamp."

Felix harrumphed and went back to sulking and contemplating what Piers's headdress would look like with a nice streak of mud on it. Sheba gave Felix a pitying glance and motioned to step over nearer to him when Jenna let out a gasp that could only mean one thing-

"DJINNI!" She exclaimed and pointed melodramatically. Her hand hung there a moment before she put it down. "Oh wait, it's just a Venus."

Felix's eyebrows twitched. It had been statistically proven that if Jenna was good at anything, it was finding Djinn. She had tracked down five of the creatures for herself, not to mention several for Piers and Sheba. Felix, however, had only Echo, who by this point was brooding a bit like a moody teenager for want of like company. That or it wasn't lonely but simply taking after Felix, but Felix preferred to think that it was lonely.

He walked over slowly to inspect the Djinni, crackling as he went. The crackling, of course, came from the mud that had now mostly dried, making Felix look something like a clay statue with a rather unfriendly visage.

The Djinni was up on an outcrop of rock, bouncing around some hardy weeds that managed to grow in the cavern. The creature stopped bouncing for a moment and turned in a circle, glowing softly. Then, the weeds suddenly grew several feet taller and sprouted large flowers, that even Felix, whose natural fashion sense Jenna considered appalling at best, had to admit were hideous. The flowers were a nauseating yellowish-gray color with large maroon splotches, and as soon as they bloomed, emanated an odor of rotting meat.

Jenna elbowed her brother in the ribs, though some mud rubbed off on her arm when she did so. "All yours, Felix." Apparently, the Djinni sensed predatory intentions, and with one look at Felix, hopped down off the ledge and scampered away.

"I think it went down there," said Sheba, pointing at some stairs roughly carved into the rock. Felix considered. On one hand, he felt the need to appease poor, lonely Echo (although, given the Djinni's namesake, his loneliness was rather ironic.) On the other, he felt as though his nostrils had already been assaulted quite enough and doubted the usefulness of a Djinni whose only apparent power was to grow flowers that smelled more fetid than the swamp. Apparently sensing his vacillation, Echo crawled out of his tunic onto his shoulder and sniffled a little. Felix sighed and crackled off down the stairs, the rest of the group following.

* * *

The area below turned out to be more than comfortably warm, even after hours of crawling through a swamp in which the cold moisture in the air had sunk through even Felix's layers of clothing. Precisely, it was riddled with streams of magma that moved like super-heated molasses.

"Hrm," Kraden observed. "Who would have expected to find magma beneath this swamp?"

Jenna shrugged. "I dunno, but-"

A rather high-pitched yelp issued from a hundred feet away. "Isn't that your Djinni?" Piers asked, quirking an eyebrow.

Felix turned to the source of the sound. Yes, there was the Djinni, which he then decided was of negligible usefulness _and_ intelligence. The creature had somehow managed to get itself caught between two magma flows and was quickly losing ground to stand on. Felix crackled over and, spying a large, unstable rock at the edge of the flow, willed it to tip into the magma. The Djinni hesitated for a moment before jumping onto the makeshift bridge and scuttling over to Felix. The creature gaped up at him. He scowled back.

Then, with a chirp, it climbed up his mud-encrusted clothing, perched atop his head, and stayed there. Felix blinked and began to walk back to the others.

"D'awww, lookit you Felix! You made a friend," said his sister. "So what's your name, although I already have a guess," she addressed the Djinni.

It bounced, turned in a circle, and let off another glow of Psynergy. "Flower!" it peeped, as about twenty small, grayish plants suddenly sprouted from Felix's muddy clothes and bloomed. There was a collective snort from all parties except Felix, as even Sheba bit her lip.

Jenna nodded. "Very nice, Flower. Now how the heck are we going to get out of here, because I definitely have not seen a way out and I think we've been everywhere," she stated matter-of-factly.

Felix knew that the only reason that Jenna wasn't demonically crabby by this point was that she had a bag of snacks stowed away, which she dipped into every so often. He wondered if the increase in attacks by cave-dwelling creatures hadn't been because the beasts smelled Jenna and thought, "_Foooood_." Felix was regretting having no such available snacks, as his victuals were stored in the depths of his bag, which was now welded to his back by mud. Being that the group had expected to make it from ship to Yallam in a relatively short time and had not planned on spending a day tromping around in a marsh, the others had packed light and were presumably also getting hungry.

So, the group mulled around, looking for some sort of missed path, not having the energy to go much farther, but definitely not wanting to backtrack the whole way. Jenna eyed the far wall of rock curiously. She produced a chocolate chip cookie, which she promptly bit into. "Nomf. You know, we could always... make a way out," she offered.

Sheba gave an inquisitive glance and made her way over. "Oh, the wall. It's cracked."

Jenna nodded and grinned. "Heh. And soon to be broken. Come on out, Djinn. Ready... set-"

Kraden and Piers, who had noticed the Mars Adept suspiciously near the crack and feared the worst, spoke simultaneously. "Wait Jenna, you don't know if the cave will-"

"I'm not sure that's a good ide-"

"Summon Meteor!" she cried as she threw both arms into the air, one fist still tightly locked on the remains of her cookie. Sheba then grabbed her sleeve and pulled her back away from the wall. "Come on!"

The two ran back to Kraden, Piers, and Felix as a fiery blast engulfed the wall. The whole cavern rumbled and erupted in a bright glow as flames seared through the fissure. The group ducked behind a large pillar and waited for the fires to die down. Once the air cleared, they were greeted with a sizable hole in the rock.

Jenna grinned and stuffed the rest of her treat into her mouth. "See?"

_CRACK!_

Piers raised his eyebrows. "That... did not sound good.

_CRACK-CR-CRACK-CRACK!_

Kraden looked around. "Neither did that."

_CRACK-CRACK!_

A large rift stretched from the new opening, through the ceiling above them, to the other side of the room. Sheba turned and pointed. "Look!"

Magma began to ooze through the new fracture in the rock.

Cookie finally gone, Jenna bit her lip. "Uh-oh."

There was a crackle as Felix took the first initiative to high-tail it out through the hole his sister had created. The rest of the group quickly followed as the rock wall cleft in two halves and a gush of magma came pouring out. Felix swore that he heard Flower let out a "Whee!" as he ran.

* * *

The group did not stop running until all its members were well away from the side of the mountain and up on a nearby hill. Sheba collapsed onto the ground and Kraden leaned against a tree. Jenna panted, hands on her knees.

"Well... Felix got a Djinni," she offered.

Felix gave her a petrifying glare, accompanied by twitch of the eye.

"Do you think we should do anything about_ that_?" Sheba pointed. The lava was pooling into the valley below them, still aflame, but beginning to cool as it hit the outside air.

Jenna waved her hand. "Won't it cool eventually?"

Sheba lifted an eyebrow at her friend. "Yes, but it might be dangerous," she said, with the implication of "and you should care because you did it." She glanced over at Piers.

"Well?"

He shrugged. "Alright, let's see what we can do." The Mercury Adept's mood had seemed to improve since leaving the wetter part of the swamp.

Blasts of energy lit the area as the two called upon their summons to cool the lava. When they were finished, the now black flow steamed slightly, but had ceased to move. Felix, who had elected to work on picking the mud out of his ponytail, which had solidified into a long, thin brick, started as Flower bounced atop his head and turned in a circle before hopping down and skittering away.

Flower ran over to the edge of the cooling rock and poked it experimentally with a foot. The Djinni let out a squeak and a glow of energy and hundreds of yellowish-gray flowers with maroon splotches erupted from the flow.

* * *

End Notes:

I need to issue a blanket "Thankyouthankyouthankyou!" to those who have read so far and especially those who've reviewed. I appreciate it!

Also, I haven't forgotten that this fic is also labelled "romance." I've just been having a bit of fun with characterizations (although I really have been mean to Felix lately! Po' boy.) Anyway, I have a more clear-cut idea of where I'm going next, so hopefully, it won't be another three weeks.


End file.
